Flags of Convenience:
The largest shipping registries are Panama, Liberia, Greece, Marshall Islands and the Bahamas,
Approximately 6,300 sail under the Panamanian flag, making Panama the largest. The Greek-controlled fleet is at almost 90 million gross tons.
The Marshall Islands is fourth with 1, 500 vessels and 37 million tons. Bahamas has 1,500 vessels at 27 million tons.
Other significant flags include Cyprus and Malta

30.9.11

Anwar al-Awlaki, and a second American, Samir Khan, were killed by a joint CIA-U.S. military air strike on their convoy in Yemen early Friday, After three weeks of tracking the targets, U.S. armed drones and fighter jets shadowed al-Awlaki’s convoy early September 30, then drones launched their lethal strike. The strike killed four operatives in all, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence. Navy TimesUSS BATAAN, Gulf of Aden (NNS) -- Bataan Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) relieved Boxer ARG and 13th MEU in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR), Aug. 13. BATARG/22nd MEU team will pick right up where they left off - poised and ready." Bataan ARG ships include Norfolk-based Bataan and amphibious transport dock ship USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19), and the dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41), homeported at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek - Fort Story, Va.

Four Americans and one Briton who say they were trying to free a boat seized by pirates have briefly been detained in Mozambique on suspicion of possessing illegal weapons.

They were held at the airport in the city of Nampula on Friday, police said. The US embassy said the group had no connection to the US government.Michael Ferguson, a 21-year veteran of the US Navy SEALS was arrested by Mozambique officials yesterday for illegal weapons possession while attempting to free a vessel which had been seized by pirates. Nampula provincial police spokesperson Inacio Dina said that the weapons include an Fabrique Nationale 5.5mm rifle, as well as ammunition and communications equipment.

Mr. Ferguson cv includes deployments with SEAL TEAM 1 and SEAL TEAM 8, before becoming a weapons and tactics instructor for the Coast Guard, and, just this month, an executive for the GreySide Group – a Herdon, Virginia based international risk management firm. The authorities "found no wrongdoing", the company later said.

IS Alvand, DE 71, passed through the Suez canal at Ismailia, Egypt, Tuesday, Feb.22, 2011, together with IS Kharg, replenishment ship 431. hereSyria's isolation entails a weakening of the Iranian regime, and at a time when it is aiming to impose itself as a regional superpower. Despite the bullish rhetoric that Iranian leaders keep on dispensing, the Iranian regime is currently in trouble: without Assad, Iran will be isolated. moreMost of its oceangoing surface ships are more than 40 years old, and Tehran is struggling to keep them operational. Over the past few years the only major ships the government has managed to add are one home-built destroyer and three Russian-made submarines. read

26.9.11

"We had to pay the pirates $2.6 million. The money was from our own company," said the shipping firm which has an office in the northern port city of Haiphong.After a meeting with a British company which specializes in maritime hostage negotiation on 25.Jan.2011, Hoang Son, vice director of Hoàng Sơn Co Ltd had estimated the ransom would be $5 million

The Hoang Son Sun was carrying 21,000 tons of iron ore when it was attacked about 520 nautical miles South-East of Muscat, Oman on January 17.

May Hung Bui Thai since the days of detention.

After running some distance, the robbers asked the ship anchored about three nautical miles from shore, the crew then began calling the family company to report the incident and demanded ransom.Also from that day, his life is the day you complete horror. google

The Cypriot merchant ship "Pacific Express", was target of a kidnapping effort by armed pirates.This morning the destroyer "Andrea Doria", engaged in the Indian Ocean as part of NATO's anti-piracy operation called "Ocean Shield", has intervened to give support.The attack, thwarted by the prompt reaction of the crew which closed itself in the citadel (the protected part of the superstructure), lasted almost all night and also caused a fire on board. Upon its arrival in the area, about 200 miles east of Mombasa, the ship "Doria" approached the merchant, verified the absence of pirates on board, allegedly fled with the view of the military unit, and sent a team of security to free the crew.

Afterwards the commander of the "Pacific Express", given the severity of the fire, said the ship is lost and asked for help to our unity. The destroyer "Andrea Doria" has shipped the entire crew of the merchant ship (Ukrainian commander and 25 Philippine sailors) and headed to Mombasa where they have requested to be landed.

The ship "Andrea Doria", the Control Ship of the NATO's mission Standing NATO Maritime Group 1's , under the command of rear admiral Gualtiero Mattesi, has been engaged since last June 14 in the Indian Ocean as part of NATO's "Ocean Shield" operation to counter piracy.

18.9.11

The ship was released September 15 soon after her captors were paid USD 4.5 million in ransom. Investors in the piratical operation were shortchanged when the actual pirates left the vessel at 1900 hrs local without waiting for the bagmen for the backers.

17.9.11

Heightened U.S. air activity in Yemen — and those being conducted in nearby Somalia relate to a Somali insurgent group even conducting the occasional air strike, fired from a ship offshore, or dropped from a jet. Military and intelligence officials have long argued in favor of attacks against al-Shabab camps in Somalia, which have been under overhead surveillance for years. The United States determined this year that AQAP, as the Yemen-based group is known, poses a more significant threat to the United States than the core al-Qaeda group based in Pakistan. The administration has also concluded that AQAP [al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] has recruited at least a portion of the main insurgent group in Somalia, al-Shabab, to its anti-Western cause. Drone strikes and other air attacks against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen intended targets must be drawn from an approved list of key members of AQAP deemed by U.S. intelligence officials to be involved in planning attacks against the West.